AHBL Blocklist error

I just started having email send issues. I went to Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer and ran tests on SMTP on my exchange server IP. It returned the following error which, upon further research, indicates that some sort of change was made effective Jan. 1 2015?

You need to find out what machines you have that are sending out spam. These exist or you would not be on a blacklist. Once found and removed, contact AHBL support, state your case with proof and ask to be removed.

0

creativenetworksAuthor Commented: 2015-01-23

It's my internal mail server. When I go to the website of the blocking entity, it says they made changes on Jan. 1 2015 and they can no longer "unblock" any Black Lists I'm on. First time I've ever seen this. I'm going here: http://www.ahbl.org/ then enter the main site, then I go to the dropdown of Lookup/Removal and there's a hyperlink basically saying there's nothing that can be done anymore. Pretty stumped by it all.

As promised in April, on Jan 1st, 2015, i'll be wildcarding all zones no longer in operation - this includes rhsbl.ahbl.org, dnsbl.ahbl.org, and ircbl.ahbl.org. This means that these services will return positive responses for any queries.

If you are still using these services, this may cause you to incorrectly tag e-mail as spam, or create other unintended consequences. Fix and maintain your servers, now. Do not contact us about 'removing' your domain or IP address from our lists, as there is nothing we can do for you.

0

creativenetworksAuthor Commented: 2015-01-23

What's funny is that it appears I have two customers who are rejecting my emails, however I'm not getting any NDR's. And one that is rejecting is msn.

Oh and no support page that I can see.

0

creativenetworksAuthor Commented: 2015-01-23

I've searched their site hi and low and there is no solution for getting removed. Dangdest thing I've ever seen.

says they are going away, so you may just have to wait until they clear their records. I am not sure what else.

0

creativenetworksAuthor Commented: 2015-01-23

From my research, it seems like effective Jan. 1st 2015, they are gone. So that means that any Mail Servers that are using them are going to get False Positives. NOT good! I'm having a customer call their ISP and ask them to make SURE they are not using that specific blacklist and if they are, to please remove it, then I will retest.

As the email is getting sent from your ISP's smart host, the receiving end won't see that the email is coming from your server and most likely allow it through.

The problem with smart hosts is that if they get put on a blacklist themselves, you can't do much but wait until the ISP gets themselves delisted or you could alternatively remove the smart host so that emails get sent directly from your server again.

Please advise what version of Exchange you are using if you need help setting up a smart host.

0

creativenetworksAuthor Commented: 2015-02-13

From what I could find, there is/was a blacklisting company that has closed it's doors. It appears they had somewhat of an attitude as well (probably a 9 year old that didn't get that one extra Oreo). In any event, when they closed shop, anything that was checked by their blacklist site was denied. So if you purchased their blacklists, and didn't make any changes, it would check any and all emails coming in. Because the response was 'not available' it failed. Think of it like this. abc.com sends an email to def.com. def.com has been using the blacklists from this company. def.com's email server sends a request asking if abc.com is listed as a blacklisted site. The response is 'nothing'. Assume that def.com's mail server assumes that if a request is not answered by the blacklisting company (in other words, def.com is asking for an approval of abc.com's email) and the approval does not come, def.com's mail server assumes it is blacklisted and kicks the email back. And from what I can tell, there are MANY that used this companies blacklist site too. Some....big phone and web companies.